Softened
by AislinCeivun
Summary: Natsume is sick. Madara is irritated – at first. But then he softens.


**Title::** Softened

**Author::** Aislin

**Fandom::** Natsume Yuujinchou

**Characters::** Madara/Nyanko, Natsume

**Rated::** G

**Length::** oneshot

**Genre::** Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, WAFF

**Disclaimer:: **I do not own any of the characters. Every credit goes to Midorikawa Yuki.

**Warnings::** - (gen)

**A/N::** I'm immensely grateful to Bea (*Imperial Mint) for the wonderful beta-job she did on the story! Thank you very much~! :3 Also, to one of my friends – yes, I'm talking about you, there! – who showed me fantastic fanarts and got me inspired.^^

**Summary:: **Natsume is sick. Madara is irritated – at first. But then he softens.

March, 2012

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><p>Softened<p>

_Imbecile brat!_ Madara snapped in his head while shoving the cloth back onto Natsume's forehead from where it had previously slid down. Shining droplets ran out of the wet piece of linen and streamed down on the boy's flushed face.

When he sensed the rush of heat coming from Natsume, Madara swore. _Foolish, foolish brat! How many times have I told him to be careful? But no, he always has to get his own way… One of these days I'm going to wake up to find him dead and the Book gone, thanks to an ayakashi. That will be the death of me!_

When the thought of a tiny, low-class demon killing off the boy hit Madara, something stirred uncomfortably inside him – in a quiet, soft way, as if it was never even there. But he felt it. He made a face.

"Stupid Natsume! Stupid, stupid, stupid!" He pranced with rage by the sleeping boy, not caring a bit about whether he would wake the brat up with the noise.

Well, he did.

Natsume opened his eyes that were shining from fever and glanced down at the cat sprawling beside his futon. "Nyanko-sensei…"

"If you think even for a second that I will babysit you through the entire night because of your own idiocy, you are horribly mistaken!" Madara nattered while swinging his paws heatedly in front of Natsume's face. "A powerful demon such as me cannot be degraded to the level of a common nurse!"

Natsume produced a small smile. "I know, sensei. I'm sorry." He started coughing then, and Madara made an even sourer grimace than before. Why, just _why, _did he have to care so much for this dense human?

"And how am I supposed to sleep when you make so much noise? You're so hot anyway that being in the room feels like I've been pushed into an oven." He turned his nose up and stretched with his claws pushed out. "I'll get your foster mother."

"What? No!" Natsume sat up so quickly that, by the look of it, the room started swirling around him. He nearly fell back onto the futon but he ignored all of that and just stared at the cat with a scared look in his eyes. "You can't let Touko-san know about it, sensei! She can't know that I'm sick. There's nothing she could do with the ayakashi's poison anyway, and Hinoe already got me the antidote…" At the mention of the demon woman Madara puffed arrogantly, but even if Natsume noticed, he let it go. "She said that I'll be alright by morning so we have to endure the night like this, without Touko-san and Shigeru-san noticing."

Madara really did not understand humans, and Natsume Takashi was an even greater riddle to him than usual. He could understand the bit about why the boy didn't want to reveal the secret of his special ability to his guardians, but not asking for their help even in situation like this? With Madara's species it worked in a completely different way, of course, since powerful demons would never have called for help in their life, but his experiences with humans showed him that men loved to depend on each other all the time. Natsume, however, was different.

And why was that? Because of '_love_'? So that he wouldn't cause problems for the woman?

Madara snorted. This whole love thing was utterly ridiculous. There was no such word in the ayakashi's vocabulary.

Well… there shouldn't have been.

"I'm sorry if I bother you," Natsume said then before lying back to the futon and pulling the blanket up to his chin, "but please bear with it. In return, I won't pull your leg tomorrow if you go drinking sake, okay?"

But Madara did not have the chance to reply. By the time he'd opened his mouth to tell the brat off again, Natsume had already fallen back asleep.

The ayakashi kept on watching the boy with growing anger for a couple of minutes before he felt the irritation slowly subside in him. He ambled closer to his protégé, lay beside Natsume's head and watched his heavily fluttering eyelashes in silence.

_He's in a bad shape, _he thought with a darkening face. _I'm going to rip Hinoe to pieces if her medicine doesn't work!_

For a moment, he was taken aback from what he had just thought but he calmed himself a second later. 'The only reason why he would need to punish Hinoe as he had imagined was because of the Book'should Natsume die too early, a crowd of ayakashi would probably go for it right in that second. Madara could beat them all with one swish of his tail of course, but it would be tiring and highly bothersome. No… it was much easier to let Natsume give the Book to him by his own free will, letting every ayakashi know that FROM THIS DAY ON, THE BOOK OF FRIENDS BELONGS TO MADARA.

Just let there be still enough names in it when Madara finally got his hands on it! He always watched it, pouting how the amount of pages if the Book decreased from week to week…

Natsume moaned in his sleep and Madara snapped his head up. He scolded himself for it right away. How for goodness' sake could he behave like a pet dog?

He went closer to Natsume, leant over him and pressed his nose to the boy's body. He usually felt quite disgusted by the odour of human sweat, but now it was only causing him an odd, sharp pain behind his ribs as he realised that the fever wouldn't go down. What's more, he could still smell the scent of the ayakashi who had scratched Natsume earlier on the boy's skin. It was a tiny, pathetic weakling of a demon, without even a slightly strong poison, but as it seemed, it was just enough for a human.

Madara watched the boy in silence. So small, so fragile, so weak… Human, indeed. He was too ashamed to admit it, but sometimes he found himself forgetting the rather significant fact that Natsume was a mortal human. Then, when he realised his mistake in situations like this, something stirred inside of him every time in a fairly uncomfortable way.

_Yeah, Natsume is a human. So what?_ he thought bitterly, angry at mostly himself. _I'm only interested in the Book, anyway._

Natsume whimpered again, wrinkled his forehead, drew his lower lip into his mouth and was shivering all over. Tiny, shining pearls of sweat sat on his flushed face.

_He feels cold,_ Madara stated after some brief moments of observation._ Not good. This means that his temperature is still increasing…_

He decided that he would not give a damn to Natsume's plea and get the Fujiwara women after all. Of course he couldn't speak to her, he couldn't tell her what the matter was, but Madara was always quite creative; he'd think of something. If nothing else, he'd bite on the woman's skirt and drag her into Natsume's room.

He stood up and was ready to go, but then he cast one glance at the shivering boy and something held him back. He wanted to move, he really wanted to – he had to do something with the brat if he wanted a good night's sleep – yet it was as if an unidentified_ something_ had locked his legs in place.

Finally, he lowered his head and shook it. _What the hell am I doing? I've been totally softened by this brat._

He looked at Natsume again before shaking his entire body. By the time the sudden fog dissolved, he was sitting on the cold floor in his complete form.

Well, so much for getting the woman. Now he wouldn't be seen by anyone but Natsume…

The truth was that he hated changing to his real form in this room because even if he tried to huddle himself up, he couldn't really fit in the tiny place with his enormous body. Strange as it was, he couldn't find himself caring for this bothersome fact right now. He stretched his long legs out, flashing his claws out for a brief moment before lowering his head so he could gently grab Natsume between his teeth, and then he positioned the boy so that he was lying against the soft, snow-white fur of his side.

Natsume hummed quietly and pressed his hand to Madara's warm body. "Nyanko-sensei…"

"Hush, brat!" Madara said with his deep, vibrating voice. "Sleep."

The human child closed his mouth obediently and Madara lifted his long, shaggy tail up to cover it around the boy like a warm blanket.

Natsume's shivering subsided soon after. He was still red from the fever and was sweating heavily, but the heat of his body had finally started to decrease. Madara opened his large mouth and breathed on the boy softly, concentrating all his spirit powers on cooling him down.

Outside, the night was descending to every part of the town like liquid black ink, but the sharp, golden eyes of Madara were watching the boy by his side, wide awake. When Natsume stirred, the slit pupils narrowed. When Natsume relaxed, Madara did the same.

When it started to dawn later on, the sun broke brilliant orange patches onto the bottom of the rose-coloured sky. Madara laid his long head next to the sleeping brat, closed his eyes and listened to the even heartbeat with growing ease. Thump-thump… Natsume puffed peacefully into Madara's coat, and the ayakashi decided that it wouldn't be necessary to tear Hinoe apart after all.

The sun was shining brightly by the time Touko-san opened the door to wake Natsume up. Madara was lying by the futon in his usual, ball-shaped cat form, and opened one of his eyes only for a second to check on Natsume.

The brat stretched for a long time, then slipped out of the blanket and turned to the ayakashi with a healthy expression on face. "Wake up, sensei!"

Madara produced a spectacularly long yawn before turning away meaningfully. "Leave me alone! I couldn't rest enough because of you so now I'm going to sleep, meh."

Natsume laughed, then stood up, moved closer to Madara and gently scratched that lovely place under the cat's ears before going to change.

"I must properly thank Hinoe for the antidote later," he said while putting on a shirt. "It really worked quickly!"

Madara snorted._ But he won't thank me for anything, of course,_ he snapped bitterly but then he pushed the thought away right in the moment. He would have bitten his own tongue off sooner than admitting that… what, exactly? That he watched for the sick boy all night long? That a foolish human brat was able to soften him this much? That he was not, after all, as indifferent towards the boy as he let it seem…?

Bah. Never! Never, never, never.

"Come on, sensei."

Madara was determined to let the boy wander off alone today so he could go drinking with his ayakashi pals from the forest because really, this was the least he deserved after the events of the night.

And yet, when Natsume bent down and reached out for him, the influence of a strange, inexplicable impulse made Madara shamble up onto the brat's shoulder where – after settling down comfortably – he waited for them to leave for school with quiet humming.


End file.
